Atmung
by Aondehafka
Summary: A Rozen Maiden fic. The events of Traumend set many changes into motion. This story chronicles some of the most important ones for both Jun and Shinku, against a backdrop of the dolls’ next great conflict and beyond.
1. Rage and Sorrow

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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**I'm going to lead into this with what might sound like a strange request: if you haven't watched the Rozen Maiden anime all the way through the end of the second season, do not read this story or any of the follow-ups. Rozen Maiden is a great series, and reading this before watching it will completely spoil you on most of the important plot twists... plus the story won't make sense anyway.**

**On my profile page there is some further information about the series. Again, if you're not familiar with the anime, please go there now instead of reading further – it's for your own good. Trust me, I know what I'm doing.**

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Chapter 1: Rage and Sorrow

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Shinku stared contemplatively down into her untouched cup of tea. It was the same flavor it always was, here in her dreamscape. She rested in the same elegant red chair, in the same Victorian parlor. The sunlight streamed through the windows at the same angle and with the same hazy brightness it always did. "How many thousands of times have I come here?" she mused. "And never a real change in all that time... Perhaps I should try to make some?"

The light from the window suddenly dimmed, as black feathers drifted through the air on the far side of the room. She let out a quiet snort. "Even Suigin Tou's visits are becoming ordinary."

"Shinku..." Unsurprisingly, Suigin Tou's opening line was the same too.

"Suigin Tou." Shinku lifted the cup and drank her tea before any pinions could land in it. She was a little surprised that the First Doll said nothing during the time this took. "What is it?"

Her uninvited guest didn't reply, merely stared down at the floor with gritted teeth and one fist clenched. Shinku began quietly drawing in power from Jun. "What did you want?" she asked, hoping against hope that Suigin Tou wasn't there to cause more trouble. She reminded herself of the glimpses she'd gained into her sister's memories when she received her Rosa Mystica, the care the First Doll felt for a girl broken worse than herself. Suigin Tou might not be fond of showing it, but she did have a softer side.

With an incoherent cry, Suigin Tou spread her ragged ebony wings wide, then whirled them around and down. Darkness trailed in their wake, leaving her half of the room shrouded in absolute blackness.

Shinku was already moving, flooding the air before her with a shield of rose petals. Although they didn't obscure her vision, the same would not be true for Suigin Tou. In the next instant she threw herself to the side, drawing fresh strength from Jun and preparing to counterattack. But nothing came flying out of the darkness—not feathers, not flames, not curses.

After a few tense moments had ticked past, Shinku frowned and concentrated. She had held Suigin Tou's power for only a little while, but it had given her familiarity enough for this...

Ten seconds of fumbling effort later, she managed to adjust her vision and see through the enveloping shadows. As soon as she did she blinked and lost the image, her concentration broken by the unexpected sight. "S-Suigin Tou?"

"I'm sorry." The words were choked and quiet, originating mere inches above the floor. Clearly Suigin Tou was still hunched down in the miserable pose which had met Shinku's gaze.

The last of the rose petals glimmered away to nothingness. "You're sorry?" Shinku repeated, hoping to draw out a bit more detail.

"I'm sorry." A pained gasp. "I'm sorry I took so much joy in tearing away your arm. I'm sorry that even as Bara Suishou defeated me, I was more determined to break you than her. I'm sorry that I never listened to what you said, about how we were sisters and sisters shouldn't destroy each other."

"I see..." Shinku paused, and considered her next words carefully. "And are you sorry for following Bara Suishou to that place?"

"I think _that_ goes without saying!" The words were snarled, not choked out, and the point of their origin changed as Suigin Tou shot to her feet. Shinku congratulated herself. Her sister was no longer drowning in grief, and the anger that had replaced it was focused on someone who actually deserved it. Both of these were a nice change. "That damnable little _liar!_ I hope it was _my_ rage and pain that burned her from the inside out!"

"You know, I honestly would not be surprised at that," Shinku murmured. "Still, I think it was just too much power for her to hold."

"Because she was never a Rozen Maiden at all," Suigin Tou said bitterly, then briefly shifted her language to German. It was such a more satisfying language to curse in. "And the bastard whoreson who made her dared to pass himself off as Father to us." Her voice dropped nearly to a whisper as she added, "To me."

"Suigin Tou..." Shinku murmured sadly, then fell silent, considering her older sister. _'I remember what she said to me, after Bara Suishou's final attack broke her. That Father told her even she could be Alice, even with a body like that. And that is true; I am sure of it. But it was Enju who told her that, not Father, and he would have just been saying what he needed to get her to fight. Of all of us, she may have been hurt the worst.'_

She didn't think Suigin Tou would want her to bring any of that up, though. At least not now, when the pain would still be fresh. She limited herself to a quiet, "I am sorry as well."

"Spare me your pity, Shinku." With a sound like the tearing of a bolt of cloth, Suigin Tou flapped her wings and shredded the darkness around her. She took a determined step forward. "None of us realized what was really happening. Not me, and not you either."

Shinku inclined her head. "We all made mistakes," she admitted. "And we all need to learn from them."

Suigin Tou gritted her teeth. "Maybe pity would have been better," she muttered. Then, louder, "That's right. I already told you what I learned. What about you, _sister_? What hard lesson did you choke down?"

"That as sisters, we have to stand together. Father restored all of us except Hina Ichigo and Sousei Seki, the ones who were defeated by a real Rozen Maiden. And he told me I must find a way to bring them back."

"And...?" Suigin Tou asked after an expectant moment of silence.

"Don't you think that's enough?" Shinku wanted to know. "It might not be bitter, but it is certainly a huge responsibility!"

"Tch!" Suigin Tou packed more disgust into the monosyllable than the Sakurada household generated in a week. "I gave you my apology, Shinku. I faced the mistakes I had made, even though it hurt worse than anything. But you're still closing your eyes to your own? Still wrapped up so snug in your blanket of self-righteousness?"

Shinku frowned. "The only one I ever saw wearing blinders was you, Suigin Tou."

"If you don't see it, then you haven't even _tried_ to see. You haven't thought at all about what Father really wants, or why he made us how he did."

"Just say what you mean," the Fifth Doll snapped. "And quit acting like you wish we still had the Alice Game looming over us."

"There! That's it exactly!" Suigin Tou cried. "How many times did you say it, Shinku? 'I have no intention of fighting.' 'I plan to stop the Alice Game.' You said all that back when we thought that was the only way to become Alice. And now we know it isn't, now," her voice faltered, and she looked momentarily away, "now we know Father wanted as many of us to become Alice as possible, not just one... and I won't be able to tell him I'm sorry for trying to break all the others until I find my way to that place..."

"You say all that, but it seems you still wish we could fight," Shinku declared.

"You say _that_ as if we were never supposed to fight at all!" Suigin Tou spat. She paused to let the other doll reply, but when Shinku just stood there blinking those big, innocent, irritating blue eyes she scowled and elaborated. "How can you be so willfully blind? Just because we weren't meant to take the Alice Game all the way to its end, doesn't mean we weren't supposed to play at all!"

"How did you decide that, Suigin Tou?" Shinku asked coldly. "Is it just that you're still clinging to the thought of defeating me?"

"I will some day! You had better believe that!" Suigin Tou shouted. Then, regaining her self-control, she said, "You're the one clinging to delusions. When Father made us, he only told us about one path to Alice. He had to have meant us to walk farther down it than we did, before Enju and Bara Suishou ruined everything. Maybe if we had, we would have found those other ways without Father having to tell us. Maybe that was what he wanted, or maybe not. But it's certain that he did want us to fight, to strive against each other and learn from it! And all you ever learned was how to go your own way!"

"You have no right to speak for Father like that!" Shinku yelled, her fists clenching. "You, who were the first to follow Bara Suishou and Enju! You, who were the only one to ever deliberately break one of your sisters! You, who were not even taking the Rosae Mystica for yourself or Alice, but to heal your medium!"

"THAT'S A LIE!!" Suigin Tou screamed, her wings spreading wide and growing the snapping dragon heads. "After Megu was healed, I would have taken them into myself to be Alice! One girl healthy, and one girl made perfect! But you wouldn't care about either of those, would you?"

"How dare you say that? After what you tried to do in Jun's dream! He and I have stood together through the worst you or anyone could throw at us!"

Seeing the cracks in Shinku's composure was enough to restore some of Suigin Tou's. "Never mind that time; who brought her medium into the final battle, even though he was powerless to help? It didn't make it any easier for you to draw power from him, having him there. All it did was put him at risk! So why did you bring him, Shinku? Simply because you couldn't bear to let one of your possessions out of your sight?"

"I brought him because I trust him," Shinku said, each word etched with frost and iron. "Trusted him to find a way to make a difference. And he did that and more!"

"Whatever," Suigin Tou said dismissively. "I don't really care about your little pet anyway. But I do care about you matching what I did, and admitting your mistakes to me just like I forced myself to do to you."

"So you wish for me to match you? Very well," Shinku said evenly, drawing in another surge of power from Jun. Suigin Tou was the doll with the greatest power to manipulate N-fields, such as the dream they were in... but this dream was Shinku's.

Without warning the world convulsed. By sheer reflex Suigin Tou managed to stabilize her position within it for a few seconds, but she could not hold. With a cry of, "Damn you, Shinku!" she was torn free and cast into the general space between dreams and waking.

The triumphant Fifth Doll's solitude was short-lived, though. Even as Suigin Tou's cry faded, she heard another voice calling her name...

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"Shinku... Shinku... Shinku!"

She opened her eyes, peering through the blackness of three A.M. to focus on Jun. "What is it, Jun? You should not open my box and wake me like that. It's very rude."

"Rude?" Jun echoed. "Is that all you've got to say?" Then he blinked. "Uh... it was you and not Suisei Seki drawing all that power from me, right?"

"Then I woke you up first?" Shinku grimaced. "I am sorry. But Suigin Tou forced her way into my dream world again." She related a brief outline of what had passed between the two of them.

"Geez, that doll never learns," Jun complained. "Or not enough, anyway. At least it sounds like she knows better than to actually break anyone now."

"Even if she is only holding back for Father's sake," Shinku grumbled. "You know, Jun... I never meant to destroy Hina Ichigo. I did not defeat her to get her Rosa Mystica. And Suigin Tou only fell to Bara Suishou after I had as good as defeated her."

"Huh?" Jun blinked, scrubbed his eyes, and wondered whether he was still partly asleep. "What does that have to do with what we were talking about?"

"Just that I wish he had restored Hina Ichigo, and left Suigin Tou to be called back."

"Oh. Yeah, that would have been better." Jun yawned. "Um... is it gonna be safe for you to go back to sleep? Will she just be there waiting for you?"

"I will have to face her sooner or later," Shinku answered. "But... I would rather it wasn't tonight. Perhaps we could talk about ideas for helping Hina Ichigo and Sousei Seki?"

"Okay," Jun said, stifling another yawn and feeling grateful that school hadn't resumed yet. "I'll make the tea."

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Author's Notes

Thanks go to Brian Randall, who preread each of the ten chapters in the fic. Thanks also go to Peach Pit, for creating this anime, and to the group Ayu who created the fansubbed version that I watched (if you were expecting names like 'Souseiseki' and 'Suigintou', that's the reason why you're not seeing them; the naming format used by Ayu was 'Sousei Seki' and 'Suigin Tou') long before Geneon picked up the license for distribution in North America.

Note: this story was completed in 2006, but I waited awhile to post it. However, I'm tired of waiting for this site to put up a 'Rozen Maiden' category, so in it goes under 'Anime Crossovers' instead. When and if fanfiction(dot)net ever decides to create the appropriate category, I'll delete and re-post this fic.


	2. Baby Steps

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 2: Baby Steps

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"Jun-kun! You're home!" Nori said thankfully. "Um... where did you go?" She looked at the bag he was straining to carry. Through the cloth she could see hard corners and flat surfaces. "Are those books?"

"Yeah. Didn't Shinku tell you?" Jun gasped as he staggered past her. "Tomoe found some more that might tell about Rozen and the dolls. She got them sent to the school library and I picked them up just now."

"Shinku-chan isn't here. She's doing something in the N-field. And when I asked Suisei Seki-chan, she just told me a story about you going off to battle your fears."

"Wicked little doll," Jun grumbled half-heartedly as he straightened up from putting the bag on the couch. "But I guess it's good to see her getting her spirit back."

"I know..." Nori murmured. "With Hina-chan and Sousei Seki-chan sleeping like this, it's so quiet. It almost feels like our house is mourning for them..." She gave an abrupt shake of her head. "But that's not right! They're not gone for good! They're just... away for awhile. Right, Jun-kun?"

"That's right!" he said, much more firmly than she had managed. "We're gonna get them back. Maybe one of these books will have what we need." He sighed. "I just wish Shinku was here to start reading them—OUCH!!" He hopped away on one leg, clutching the other in surprised agony.

Suisei Seki retracted the foot she'd used to kick him. "Since when is Shinku the only one around here who knows how to read?!"

"They're in German, Suisei Seki!" Jun hollered.

"So was Father, you stupid chibi-human! We all read German just fine!" Suisei Seki declared. "Now get me one of those books!"

The impulse flitted across Jun's mind to offer her a choice by upending the sack over her head. But the books were too hard and bulky for that, and anyway this wasn't the best time for jokes. "Here you go," he said, picking up the topmost one and giving it to her.

Suisei Seki accepted it with a haughty toss of the head and flounced away. The drama of her exit was ruined, though, as Jun suddenly called out, "Wait!"

"Well? What is it?"

"There was one time Shinku told me I could use our connection to do some of the things she could, that I could read German if I tried hard enough. So I tried, and nothing happened, and she said she was lying." Jun hesitated, hoping against hope, then said, "Was she really?"

"Chibi-human, your brain must be even smaller than your head!" Suisei Seki pronounced. "How could you possibly think that would work? I already _said_, reading German isn't one of our powers!" She stalked away again, but stopped at the doorway. Without turning around, she said in a much quieter tone, "But... I guess it's nice to see how much you want to help Sousei Seki and Chibi-Chibi Ichigo..." With that said, she darted out of sight.

"I really do want to help them..." Jun said to no-one in particular.

"Jun-kun..." Nori murmured. "You will. You'll find a way. Remember how you were able to fix Shinku-chan's arm? You shouldn't have been able to do that at all, from what she told me. But you still did."

"I guess..." Jun sighed. "I'm going to my room for awhile."

"Okay," Nori said. "I'll call you when dinner's ready."

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With a grunt Jun flopped down onto his bed, lying on his back and staring vacantly through the ceiling. He laid like that for only a little while before twisting around onto his side. That pose lasted no longer, and soon he was sitting cross-legged on the bed, grimacing in thought.

"What is it about what Suisei Seki said that's bugging me?" he muttered, rubbing his fingers against his scalp as if to massage the thoughts loose. "Not even that little wicked queen would lie about this. Shinku was just teasing me—I really can't read those books, no matter how much it might help."

He chewed over the thought for awhile longer. "Hang on... what was it Suisei Seki actually said? Something like, it was stupid to think I could use Shinku's power to read German, because reading German wasn't one of her powers in the first place?"

He frowned, and this time it looked more thoughtful than frustrated. "That doesn't answer my whole question. That one time, Shinku said that as her medium I shared a number of powers with her. Obviously she was just teasing about reading a different language, but that doesn't mean she made up the whole thing. What if I really can use that power, even when I'm out here?"

As if drawn by a magnet, his gaze turned to lock on Hina Ichigo's closed case. With that as his anchor, he let his thoughts drift to experiences he'd had in another place. Or maybe it was places. He barely understood anything about the N-field, but he at least knew that some things were possible there that weren't in the real world.

"I gave Shinku her arm back," he said, remembering the most cherished of his personal triumphs. "And there were a couple of other times, too, when I used power to protect her during a battle, or to break out of those crystals so I could get to her." He ran them all through his mind, trying to call back every detail he could. "Each time... each time I was so determined to help her, to protect her, to give her something... to do that for someone I cared about..."

Almost without realizing he was doing it, he slid off the bed, kneeling on the floor close to Hina Ichigo's case. "Enju said, 'The soul which has gone far away on a journey will not come back'," he whispered. "But he was wrong, or he was lying... he said some things to me about love, and how that mattered for a dollmaker, but his doll was as ugly on the inside as he was. I don't think he understood even the little bit I do..."

His hand was on her case now. He sat unmoving for a long time, lost in thought. At last he heaved a sigh, and whispered, "I miss you, Hina Ichigo, Sousei Seki. Maybe I could do something about that. But... but it's way too big a job to try without any practice at all."

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"Hey, Jun-kun," Nori said as her brother joined her in the kitchen. It was good to see him come out of his room so soon, rather than spend an hour or more brooding. "Did you want a snack? Or maybe to help your big sister fix dinner?"

"No. Do you still have that tea set Mother gave you?"

"Huh? My eleventh birthday present?" she asked. "It got broken."

"I know, but I thought you kept it anyway."

"I did, but..." A few of the pieces had survived the fall intact. Was he thinking about taking it for the next time he and Shinku had tea? "It's not really in any shape to be used."

"I know," he said. "I just want to try something."

More puzzled than ever, Nori nevertheless brought out the tea set. Jun looked it over, blinking in surprise. "When did you glue everything back together?"

"About a year and a half ago." The first anniversary of their parents' departure overseas. "It just didn't seem right to let it keep sitting there in all those pieces."

"Well, I'm glad you did. Maybe it'll make this easier," Jun said, picking up one reassembled teacup. "And... big sister?"

Nori blinked to hear such a hesitant tone from him. "Yes, Jun-kun?"

"You take such good care of me, of all of us, and we don't do enough to show you how much it means," he said. "I'm sorry I didn't think of your tea set a long time ago. Even if this doesn't work, I'll get Shinku to mend it."

"What do you..." Nori gasped as the meaning hit her. "That's right!" she breathed. "Shinku-chan can fix broken things, putting them back together again perfectly! Oh, Jun, I never even thought of that! Thank... you..."

Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened. Jun's eyes were closed and his brow was wrinkled in concentration. He held the cup carefully between his hands. On his left, the rose ring glowed warm crimson.

As Nori watched in astonishment, the spiderweb of cracks in the cup disappeared as if they had never been.

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Author's Notes

Shinku isn't the only doll who can fix broken things; we see Kanaria do this as well. On the other hand, Hina Ichigo has to clean her crayon drawings off the floor and walls by hand. Probably this is a case of something that needs an active medium, but any doll who has one could do it.


	3. Taking a Stand

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 3: Taking a Stand

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Forty-five minutes after the final bell had rung, Jun stepped out of his last teacher's office. "Man, I knew it was going to take some getting used to," he muttered. "I just wish I could have done all this catching-up before school started again."

"Hello, Sakurada-kun," came a soft voice from behind him.

Once he would have jumped, grimaced, and fought a desire to run away. Now... well, he still jumped, but it was just out of startlement. "Hey, Kashiwaba-san," he said. "You didn't have to wait for me, you know."

"Mm," Tomoe said with her usual effusiveness. The two of them began walking through the empty halls toward the exit. "How was your first day back?"

Jun grimaced. "Annoying."

"Really?"

"Even with all the homework you got for me and helped me with, there's a lot of follow-up," he explained. "And this isn't the best time for it."

Tomoe gave him an inquiring look.

"It's just... there's so much going on right now with Shinku and all the others," he continued. "I really wish I could have put this off awhile longer."

"What's happening with them?" she asked. "Have you found out how to wake up Hina Ichigo yet?"

Jun sighed and shook his head. "I've tried my hardest," he said quietly. "But I can't reach her or Sousei Seki. Whatever's wrong, whatever's missing, I just don't know."

"I guess there was nothing in those books to help, then."

"No. But thanks anyway." Jun was quiet for a moment. "They did tell us the name of the last Rozen Maiden. Kira Kishou. And that's another thing," he said. "She introduced herself to Shinku last week, while she was dreaming. She didn't actually attack, but Shinku said she was even more hostile than Bara Suishou."

"That isn't good," Tomoe said. She paused for a moment of thought. "I suppose it's the real thing this time? Not another doll Enju made to defeat the true sisters?"

"He couldn't possibly have made another this fast. And I'm sure Bara Suishou was the only one he had from before." Jun frowned. "Who knows if he'll come back in a year with another little hunter-killer doll, though."

Tomoe gave him a sympathetic look. "I guess you do have a lot on your mind, Sakurada-kun."

"Yeah. That demon-rabbit Laplace, too. He's still around," he said. "Suisei Seki has glimpsed him a couple of times in the dream world."

"Do you think he's going to cause trouble?"

"I wouldn't bet against it." Jun sighed. "But maybe it won't be too bad. It seemed like he was more tricky than outright evil." He pushed away the memory of Laplace's last words to him, so light and casual yet resonating perfectly with everything Enju had said about how powerless and meaningless he was. _'Sure, I didn't need to hear that then. But I got worse taunts than that every day my first year of middle school.'_

"Mm. If there's anything I can do to help, tell me. I miss Hina Ichigo," Tomoe said. "I hate to think of her sleeping shut away in that box all the time."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Although we take her out whenever Detective Kun-Kun is on."

Tomoe smiled. "I'm glad." After a few moments of thoughtful silence, she spoke up again. "But, you know, Sakurada-kun..."

"Huh? What is it?"

"Me being Hina's medium... you know how it ended. It was a challenge, and in the end I couldn't handle it on my own. But even so, I'm very glad I had that time with her. I want to see her smiling face again." The door to the courtyard was only a few feet away now, but Tomoe stopped and looked Jun in the eyes. "With all the trouble and challenges, I still think my life is better because of the Rozen Maidens being part of it."

Jun smiled. "That goes double, or even triple for me," he agreed. "Without Shinku... without all of them, and the things I've learned..." He took a moment to remember what life had been like all those months ago, then grimaced and shook his head. "Yeah, they're a lot of trouble. But, you know... trouble is a part of life. It's like Shinku told me once: 'To live is to fight.' " He paused, thinking back over what had happened since she said that, just before the not-so-final confrontation with Suigin Tou. "Even if that turned out to mean something a little different than she thought back then."

"I think she was right," Tomoe said. She turned away, gesturing toward the front door. "Does that mean you don't want to take a side exit?"

"Huh?" he said, staring blankly at her. When she followed her pointing gesture with a brisk nod, he looked past her and through the glass doors.

Four figures were waiting in the courtyard. Jun groaned as he recognized three of them, boys who had at least four inches and forty pounds on him, and who had gone out of their way in the past to let 'Sewing-chan' know they weren't fond of him. He didn't recognize the fourth at all, though: a girl who looked to be a year younger than himself and Tomoe, with a bamboo practice sword held loosely in one hand. "Maybe they're not waiting for me?" he said hopefully.

"They are," Tomoe said with certainty. "That girl, Aki... she's Soichiro's sister." She pointed to the largest of the boys. "I'm sure they didn't have to beg to get her to challenge me while they focused on you. She's in the kendo club with me, but she doesn't like me very much." Tomoe frowned slightly, which for her was the equivalent of a normal person's snarl. "The feeling is mutual."

Jun clenched his fists tightly enough that his knuckles went bone white. "That's their idea of fun, huh?" he rasped. "To ignore me during the day, let me think the worst of that junk might be over, and catch me now? Beat me up for daring to come back here and be different from them?"

Tomoe shook her head. If they'd been planning to take the harassment that far, surely they wouldn't have been waiting inside the actual school grounds. "No, I don't think..." She trailed off as Jun, unhearing, strode forward through the doors to meet them.

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"That was very impressive, Sakurada-kun," Tomoe said ten minutes later. "But are you sure you're all right?"

"I just need to rest a bit," Jun said from his slumped position on the bench.

"How did you do that, anyway?" she asked. "I've never seen you practice martial arts, or even look interested. You don't move like a fighter. But back there... you were so fast, and so precise... how? And why are you so pale and dizzy now when they couldn't even touch you?"

"I was cheating," Jun admitted, his smirk putting the lie to any remorse his words might have implied. "You know being the medium for a Rozen Maiden means letting her use your life energy for all kinds of stuff. But you can also draw it out and do your own miracles."

"Is that so." Tomoe smiled slightly. "I'm not sure if those four would agree with the word 'miracle', though."

"Hmmph! I went easy on them," he proclaimed. "They would've beaten me black and blue, and I didn't so much as hit them!"

"They probably would have preferred that," she pointed out. "Getting spun around until they were too dizzy to do anything wasn't so bad, but then...?"

Jun chuckled, perhaps the tiniest bit sheepishly. "Shinku'll probably say I've spent too much time around Suisei Seki," he admitted. "But if she doesn't at least smile, I'll dye my uniform red."

Tomoe pulled out her cell phone and fast-forwarded through the video she'd taken, stopping at the last, farcical image. Three boys, one girl; two siblings, two unrelated youths. Jun had moved quickly while disabling them, it was true, but that was nothing to the speed with which his hands had moved afterward as he arranged intimate, clinging embraces between Hiro and Tetsuga, Aki and Soichiro, and sewed the clothes of the 'couples' together with bright red thread.

"Thanks for taking that, by the way," he added. "It'll make great blackmail material if they try to give me any more trouble."

Tomoe blinked, for the first time feeling regret that her nemesis Aki had been involved in the humiliation. "Ah... you mean I shouldn't have already uploaded it to the school webpage?"

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Author's Notes

Tomoe is almost too perfect. She wasn't quite able to handle Hina Ichigo, but other than that she doesn't really have any flaws. I enjoyed making her a bit more human. As for Jun, hopefully this didn't come across as too out-of-character for him. Not that it's something he'd be able to do in the original series, but rather a logical continuation of the growth we've seen him doing (and a reaction to Enju's and Laplace's dismissing him as insignificant and helpless in the final episode of _Traumend_). Thanks go to the creator of the webcomic Dominic Deegan for inspiring the sewing-together-in-a-really-embarrassing-pose bit.

Regarding the nature of the teasing and abuse that Jun received at school... probably only a minority of it was due to people finding out about his enjoyment of sewing. The evidence of the original series is that most of it was disdain for him having to settle on a lower-quality school when his test scores indicated that he could reach a much higher one, combined with his own attitude problem due to that. But there was at least some bullying based on the sewing thing.


	4. Lights Will Guide You Home

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 4: Lights Will Guide You Home

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Black sand and cinders crunched and shifted beneath their tread. The void above them, equally dark, pressed down as if trying to smother the young man and Rozen Maiden. Jun gritted his teeth against the oppression and strode onward, trying not to let it get to him. After all, they were making progress, probably—it had just been sand underfoot at first. He was pretty sure the change was a good sign.

"I wish Micchan was here," Kanaria said, trying and failing to keep a tremor out of her voice. The faint light cast from Pizzicato and Amethyst Dream showed her paler and wider-eyed than usual.

"I don't think she'd like this place much," Jun replied. "It's way too ugly."

"I know. But that means she'd be concentrating on me, and that would make it easy for me to ignore all this too."

"You're not supposed to be ignoring it!" Jun pointed out. "Shinku and Suigin Tou are dealing with Laplace—or at least I really hope they are—but we don't know if Kira Kishou is with him or not. She could be waiting for us. This could be a trap with Suisei Seki as the bait."

"D-d-don't say that, Jun!" Kanaria moaned.

"I have to say it! I'm depending on you, Kanaria. I couldn't possibly handle Kira Kishou on my own." At least not if she was as powerful as any of the other dolls. No-one had fought her yet, but it hardly seemed likely that the Seventh Doll had been created without the strength Rozen had given all the others. "You're the smartest Rozen Maiden, right? That means you can make sure we don't fall into a trap!"

"R-Right," Kanaria said, stiffening her spine and walking with a little more confidence.

_'I wish Shinku could have been here. It's hard, being the one who has to be strong,'_ Jun thought. _'I hope she'll be okay.'_

The cinders were more numerous underfoot now, but the sand had given way to a brittle, dull black stone. Jun squinted as far ahead as he could, looking for anything other than the ground beneath and the emptiness above. "Amethyst Dream? Can you tell if we're getting close?"

The green light that was Suisei Seki's artificial spirit bobbed in a quick, complex pattern. "She says she doesn't know," Kanaria translated, as Amethyst Dream resumed her path ahead of them. "She's sorry she can't go faster, but it's hard to follow the trail. Laplace created this N-field himself, and it's really twisty."

Jun blinked. "But we've been going in a straight line this whole time."

"No, it just looks like that," she said.

"Stupid rabbit," he muttered. "This is just another game to him, I guess."

"That's a good hypothesis," Kanaria said quietly. "Something to replace the Alice Game, since we know we don't have to play it now. He can't watch that anymore, so he's making up his own game... something just as bad, or worse maybe."

He'd been trying not to think about that, trying not to wonder what they might find waiting for them at the end of Suisei Seki's trail. At least she had to still be alive, he thought as hopefully as he could. Amethyst Dream couldn't track her if she wasn't, right?

They walked on through the seemingly-endless darkness. The cinders underfoot were replaced by withered, blackened leaves. Bone-dry twigs began to sprout from the shale. The long-dead vegetation grew thicker and thornier, though no matter how dense it became there was still no hint of life.

They couldn't see the lack of sky now; the branches wove above and around them leaving only the path clear. _'At least that probably means Kira Kishou couldn't sneak up on us,' _Jun thought grimly. _'But if it gets any tighter, we're going to have to crawl.'_

Thirty steps later, his guess proved correct. The thorny ceiling dipped sharply down, leaving just space enough for Kanaria to go on her hands and knees. For him to continue, he would have to squirm along on his belly.

The two of them paused, contemplating this with equal parts anger and dread. Amethyst Dream suddenly gave an excited bob and darted ahead, blazing brighter. By the light she shed, they could make out a clearing on the other side.

As Jun caught the gleam of one green eye and one red, he gasped. All hesitation forgotten, he dropped to the ground and twisted his way through the final hole, Kanaria following close behind him. He got to his feet and hurried forward, only to stop dead after his third step.

The clearing was littered with a myriad of objects, all as dismal as everything else had been. A sundial, a tricycle, a painting, a rocking horse, a thousand other things... his eyes passed over them without really seeing them, or the dead vines as thin as yarn that wove throughout everything. But there were eight particular items that grabbed his attention by the throat.

A left arm. A right arm. An upper torso. A lower torso. A pelvis. A right leg. A left leg. And finally, and most forlorn of all—a head with long brown hair, one eye green, the other red. None of the pieces of Suisei Seki was less than five feet away from the closest other, though they might still be connected by the vines that threaded through them.

After a moment of horrible, shocked immobility, Jun staggered forward again. He knelt down next to Suisei Seki's head, staring desperately into the vacant eyes. "S-Suisei Seki?" he whispered. "No. No, this can't... it can't end like this..."

Kanaria pulled out her binoculars, fiddled with the controls, and stared desperately around at the pieces of her sister. "She's still there," she said, her voice tiny and choked with horror. "She still has her Rosa Mystica. I don't think she can see, or hear, but she can feel."

"I... I knew it was going to be bad, but this...?" Jun said helplessly. "How... what can I...?"

Kanaria did her best to pull herself together. "It's another game," she said. "Or a puzzle, maybe. That's what it says over there." She gestured toward a battered wooden door lying flat on the ground. She could just make out riddling words scratched into the paint—in German, of course. Jun certainly would have been out of luck without her here to help him, she thought, trying to build her confidence back up. "We have to figure it out from the pieces he left."

"The _hell_ we do!" he snarled, making her jump. His fists were clenched at his sides, and his face wore a scowl like a thundercloud. The helpless uncertainty of a minute past was gone, or at least hidden by his anger. "I'm not playing any games! Amethyst Dream!" he shouted, holding out his hand. The spirit apparently understood his meaning, because it blurred over to him and summoned Suisei Seki's watering can.

"H-How can you do that?" Kanaria asked feebly.

Jun ignored her, swinging the can with wild abandon. Glowing water covered the clearing, leaving only the space around them dry.

"W-Wh-Wha-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Kanaria squealed, waving her arms furiously but too stunned to do more than that. Had he lost it completely? When those huge plants came tearing up out of the ground, that would scatter Suisei Seki and the pieces of the puzzle so that they might never find them all!

It was almost anticlimactic, she decided later, when the dead vines struggled into a faint green-brown life. They twitched for a moment, then went limp. And that was all.

Jun swung the can again, sending more water flying. Kanaria wasn't sure whether the vines became any greener, but there was at least one response—they twitched again, then twisted, then coiled freely. The pieces of Suisei Seki were brought back together, lying atop a pile of the healthiest-looking vines with none of them threaded through her any more.

Jun stepped up to her bier, pulling off his sweater and laying it over her, leaving only her head and feet exposed. The anger was gone now, and all Kanaria could see on his face was a profound sorrow. "Suisei Seki..." he murmured. "Please, wake up." The ring on his left hand glowed green, so faint at first that Kanaria wasn't sure it was real, then stronger and stronger.

The faintest of clicks and clacks heralded Suisei Seki's parts joining back together. Her eyes fluttered, closing, then opening again without the vacant stare that had been there before. They stared into Jun's relieved brown ones for a long moment, and then flooded with tears.

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"I'm sorry!" Suisei Seki wailed, at last recovering enough composure to do more than just cry. She had held it together long enough to scramble into his sweatshirt and sit down next to him, but after that she had lost it completely. Jun's undershirt was soaked with the tears she'd shed into his chest. "I'm sorry I let him trick me like that. I should have known better than to fight him all by myself."

"You don't have to apologize, Suisei Seki," Jun said as gently as he could, rubbing her back reassuringly. "Yeah, it turned out to be the wrong thing to do. But it could have been a lot worse, right? You sent Amethyst Dream to us, to let us know Laplace had Sousei Seki's and Hina Ichigo's Rosae Mystica and you were chasing after him. If you hadn't done that, we still wouldn't know what happened to them, and we might not have been able to find you either."

The Third Doll shuddered and clutched tighter to him. "It was so horrible," she choked out. "I think the only reason he didn't take my Rosa Mystica was because it would hurt more to leave me like that."

"That bastard," Jun growled. "I hope Shinku _does_ pull his tail off, and stuff it down his throat!"

"Shinku?" Suisei Seki echoed, forcing away the memory. It was over now, and if Laplace dared to show his face with Kanaria and Jun to back her up, she'd make him pay! "Why isn't she here, anyway? She's not going after Laplace by herself, is she?"

"No," Kanaria answered. "She teamed up with Suigin Tou to chase him down and get rid of him for good."

"I hope they skin him alive!" she spat. "Turn him into a fur coat and unlucky rabbit's feet!"

Jun managed a tiny smile at this. Any sign of her recovering her spirit was good news in his book. "Come on, we need to get out of here."

"Yeah!" Kanaria declared, finally stopping her fidgeting. She'd been doing it for the last five minutes, wishing that they'd hurry up and get moving. So far there was no sign of Kira Kishou or Laplace in the tunnel leading to the clearing, but that didn't mean they weren't out there waiting for just the right time to strike. And it was hard to forget that Laplace could open those rabbit-holes to step through, maybe to anywhere he wanted in an N-field he'd made himself. Trying to watch every direction at once was exhausting, even for the most intelligent of the Rozen Maidens.

"Not yet!" Suisei Seki declared, provoking a gape from Jun and an indignant squawk from Kanaria. "That's just like you, chibi-human, starting something important and then walking away with it halfway done!"

Jun gestured at the flotsam choking the clearing. "We're not digging through all this just to find your dress," he deadpanned. "OW-OW-OW!!"

Despite all the gratitude she felt toward him, as well as less easily understood or identified feelings, Suisei Seki had to admit that kick had been satisfying. "I didn't mean that! It's all torn up anyway," she said sadly. Then, recovering her fire, she pointed to the vines Jun had woken up. "You gave them something he never would, but if you leave them like this they'll die a long, horrible death!"

"So what do we do?" Jun asked. "They may be alive now, and not as bad as the rest of this place, but they're still planted in the ground here. I don't think taking them with us is a good idea." Kanaria nodded, fidgeting once again.

"That's why I'm one of the Gardeners, and you're the chibi-human who just piggybacks on my power!" Suisei Seki declared. "Amethyst Dream!" The spirit darted to her, forming the watering can once more. Suisei Seki marched over to the biggest knot of vines, upending the can over them. Jun's ring glowed brightly green. "We'll just give them enough help to hold their own..." She stopped pouring, and turned to look back at Jun with a strange, surprised expression on her face.

"What is it?" he asked.

Suisei Seki stared a moment longer, then turned back. "Or even enough that they can eventually take over this place and make it clean and alive?" she said hesitantly, tilting the can again and half-turning to keep one eye on Jun.

This time the ring's blaze was enough to drown out Pizzicato and Amethyst Dream. After a few moments, Jun frowned. "Hey, Suisei Seki, that's enough. If you keep pulling that much power, Shinku would be in trouble if she suddenly needed a lot too."

"It's okay," she replied. "I'm done anyway." She turned away from the vines, which were now a bright, healthy green with flourishing leaves. "Um... Jun?"

"Huh?"

"When did you get so strong?" she asked quietly. "When you started out as my medium, taking half that much power would have knocked you out."

"I practice every day," he said. "I'm not real good at using it yet, but I've at least built a lot more up."

"I never felt that," she said. "I... I guess you just used Shinku's bond?"

"Yeah," he answered. "Why?"

"N-No reason!" she declared with a huff. "Now stop wasting time, we need to get out of here!"

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Author's Notes

_Tears stream down your face_

_When you lose something you cannot replace..._

_Lights will guide you home_

_And ignite your bones._

_And I will try to fix you._

The above are lyrics from the song _Fix You_, by Coldplay. I highly recommend listening to the entire thing. It was a primary source of inspiration for this scene, which is one of the key ones I wrote the fic for.

The idea of Kanaria's binoculars having diagnostic powers didn't hit me until several days after I finished the first version of the scene. But there needed to be some reason why it took them so long to figure out that Hina Ichigo's and Sousei Seki's Rosae Mystica didn't return to their bodies after the events of _Traumend_, even though in this scene Kanaria was able to immediately confirm that Suisei Seki still had hers.


	5. On the Defensive

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 5: On the Defensive

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Shinku blinked, staring at the view before her. "This is... unexpected."

Suisei Seki was less restrained. "What happened here? It's all... it's..." She stopped, groped for words, then sputtered, "It's _halfway decent!_"

"Please keep your voice down," Shinku requested, even as a smile tugged at her lips. "What if Suigin Tou heard you?"

"What if she did?" the Gardener asked. "You're here to look for her, aren't you?"

"And ask for her help," Shinku pointed out. "That is pushing our luck far enough already. We do not need to make things worse by criticizing her dream world." She glanced around and muttered, just loud enough for Suisei Seki to hear, "Even if covering all that dreariness up was the best decision she ever made."

Suisei Seki stifled a giggle. "At least she'll be easy to spot now. Her dress doesn't exactly blend in anymore."

"Mm." Shinku nodded her head, staring around at the snowflakes drifting peacefully down. At that leisurely pace it must have been falling for a very long time, to cover all the old scenery so completely. There were still a few places where glimpses could be seen of the underlying buildings, but for the most part everything was covered in a clean, soft blanket of white.

"It's much brighter, too," Suisei Seki added. She looked upwards at the clouds above. "I can't see any of the upside-down city that used to be there. And with so much light coming through... maybe it's gone entirely?" The last traces of amusement were gone from her face now, replaced by worry. "You know... this doesn't really seem like Suigin Tou at all."

"I am not so sure," Shinku countered. "It's true that things look very different. But... there is still no life. No sunlight. No sign of the sky, or a welcome mat for guests." She was quiet for a few moments more, then said, "It's different... but it still feels like Suigin Tou to me."

"I hope so." Suisei Seki frowned anxiously. "Wait a minute... didn't Jun say when you and he met Bara Suishou here, it was snowing then? And that it was Laplace who did it, not Suigin Tou?"

"Yes, that is true. It was obvious at a glance that his power was at work then. But that's not true any more; this snow is entirely Suigin Tou's."

"She better not have been brainwashed onto his side or something!" Suisei Seki exclaimed, her fists clenching.

Shinku shook her head. "Not a chance. Not after Bara Suishou's deception. Suigin Tou would break into a million pieces before she let anyone else pull her away from Father's ideal.

"And Laplace was in no shape to risk confronting her again," she added. "At least not anytime soon. He only got away with his miserable life by dropping the Rosae Mystica."

"I know," Suigin Tou said, looking down. "And if there had been three of us chasing him, we could have rescued them before they were lost in N-space and still caught him too..."

Shinku placed a gentle hand on her sister's shoulder. "That's not true, you know. I told you that he did not show himself until Suigin Tou and I pretended to argue and go our separate ways. If there had been three of us, I doubt he would have appeared at all."

"I guess." Despite the reluctance of her words, Suisei Seki's face brightened, and she stood a little taller. "Hurry up and go find her, Shinku—I want to get out of here, not stand around holding the door open."

"All right." Shinku rose into the air, soaring as high as she could without losing herself in the clouds. She peered around, searching for any sign of the First Doll. Nothing obvious stood out. However, far off in the distance, she thought she could see a break in the lumps and bumps of the snow-covered city. She began flying toward it, moving steadily but not so quickly that she might miss anything closer to hand.

If Suigin Tou was aware of her presence, the First Doll wasn't ready to admit it yet. Shinku covered the distance without interruption to find her eyes hadn't deceived her. The abandoned city did not continue forever; instead it stopped at the edge of a long stretch of ground. The space was empty right in front of her, but as her gaze swept forward it encountered ridges of cold grey stone, breaking through the soil and eventually rising into a knobby crag that reached toward the clouds.

Turning her gaze away and looking right and left, she saw that the city's edge didn't describe a straight line. Instead, it curved forward in either direction, as if the space ahead of her was an island in the endless city. The snow fell just as thickly outside the city as inside, leaving it unclear why the ground was mostly bare. _'Perhaps it's a sign that the city is what she wants to forget,'_ Shinku mused hopefully as she watched ten thousand snowflakes settle to the ground and nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-three of them vanish without a trace. Moved by an uncertain impulse, she landed and began walking across the intervening distance, rather than simply flying to the mountain.

"Shinku..." The voice echoed from all around, and gave the Fifth Doll only a heartbeat of warning. In the next instant the falling snow intensified to blinding thickness, and the next after that it swirled around her, carried on a whirlwind.

"Suigin Tou!" Shinku called out, squinting and shielding her eyes with her arm. "I came to talk about something important! Can we please not play these games?"

"Let me think about it for a moment." No sooner had the words finished than the wind died and the whirling snow pulled back in all directions, vanishing as quickly as it had arrived.

Shinku gasped, taking an involuntary step backward. Most of the light had left with the snow, but she could still see through the sudden darkness. Towering above her at three times Enju's height were cold, glimmering statues of angels more grand and militant than anything the Rennaissance had produced. They weren't posed as if to strike, but their sheer majesty and presence were more than she was prepared for—especially in the dream of a doll whose prior motif had been pitiful, broken toys.

"Oh my... Shinku, that timid expression is adorable," Suigin Tou's voice lilted. The snow returned as if carried on the rise and fall of her tones, whirling around Shinku and cutting off her view of the ice-angels. "What shall I show you next, I wonder?"

"Laplace's grave would be nice," Shinku fired back. "That _is_ what I came to talk about, after all."

"Very well. If a guest doesn't want the grand tour, giving it anyway wouldn't be very polite."

The curtains of snow drew back again, though this time flakes continued to fall and there was no obscuring darkness. Shinku found herself and her sister three-quarters of the way up the ridge she'd been approaching, in a sheltered nook that hadn't been visible from below. It looked as if something had chewed a large V-shaped wedge out of the stone to form this open-air grotto, and Shinku found herself wondering whether Suigin Tou ever needed to feed those dragons she could create out of her wings.

It was only an idle thought, though, and one she barely noticed as it flitted through her mind. Most of her attention was focused on what lined the sides of the cleft—exquisite rosebushes formed from snow and ice, whose flowers glowed a fierce blue. Looking closer, she realized that Suigin Tou had somehow fixed her cerulean flames inside the blooms without harming them.

Not even the angels of a minute past had prepared her to see such beauty associated with the First Doll. "Those are very impressive, Suigin Tou," Shinku allowed after a few moments had passed.

Suigin Tou blinked, looking unsure whether she dared accept the compliment. "H-hmph! Your frightened mask was better than this soppy, dazed expression," she said. As if realizing the lack of conviction her words had carried, she frowned and said more harshly, "So what did you want, anyway?"

"To discuss the matter of Kira Kishou and Laplace, of course," Shinku said, tearing her gaze away from the roses. She still had no idea how Suigin Tou could have managed that trick with the fire, but there were more important things to think about. "We nearly managed to kill him the last time we worked together. I believe we should keep on cooperating, until this last threat is ended."

"Let me make myself clearer," Suigin Tou said. "Why are you bothering to ask? You can't have forgotten last time. All you had to do was come to me and tell me what was happening, that we needed to run Laplace to ground, and I joined you immediately." She smiled cruelly. "You have to know I'm ready to finish the job.

"And if this is about Kira Kishou, well, there's no need to worry there either." Suigin Tou glowered for a moment. "She wasn't there for any of the rabbit's plot with Enju. She hasn't seen what we have, and it would be wrong to hold that against her. I'll be sufficiently gentle when I pound the truth of her foolishness and misunderstanding through her head."

"That is all well and good," Shinku said evenly. "But it doesn't change one important thing."

"And what is that, oh wise and learnéd little sister?"

"Is it not obvious? That Laplace has hidden himself away to lick his wounds, and we have no idea where to find him or Kira Kishou. Not until one of them makes another move, I mean."

"I still don't see your point."

Shinku took a deep breath. "I want us to be ready when either of them strikes again. We cannot afford to leave anyone isolated, where Kira Kishou and Laplace could attack together. You or I could handle ourselves well enough to escape and get backup, but if Kanaria were targeted..."

"What do you need me for?" Suigin Tou snapped. "I may have to accept it, that Father wants even the weaklings to strive for Alice, but your big happy family is certainly enough to support each other or that poseur!"

"Kanaria was just one example," Shinku said patiently. "You obviously have not thought this through. Even more effective than targeting us... would be attacking our mediums."

She'd said it knowing full well that it was a low blow, but she was still surprised to see the First Doll actually gasp and take a step backward, looking away into the distance with her face horrorstruck and her hands clutched across her chest. _'Perhaps I should have broken it more gently after all,'_ Shinku mused. _'Well, best not leave her in such a state.'_ "As you certainly knew already, Jun has returned to school. That means—"

"What do you mean, 'as I certainly knew already'?" Suigin Tou demanded, shocked out of her previous shock. "Do you think I have nothing better to do than keep tabs on you dimwits?!"

"I see. Well, at least you do not look like you're about to faint now," Shinku murmured, hiding a smile. "At any rate, I need to watch over Jun's school in case he should be targeted. Suisei Seki will do the same for Nori. Sousei Seki will watch out for her master and his wife, and Kanaria and Hina Ichigo for Micchan-san.

"We need to divide ourselves like that, to be ready for an attack on any front," she continued. "But necessary or not, it is also risky, for the very reason I already pointed out. We do not know for certain that Kira Kishou is ready to fight alongside Laplace, but it is certainly possible. If the two of them strike at one weak link, we _have_ to be ready to reinforce whoever is targeted."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Suigin Tou asked. "Animate a thousand ordinary dolls as cannon fodder?"

Shinku blinked. _'Trust Suigin Tou to immediately come up with an effective but heartless idea, one that nobody else spotted at all.' _Aloud, she said, "No. That would complicate things too far. This is a matter to be resolved by only the Rozen Maidens." _'And Jun, but I am not going to tell her about the powers he's learning to use if I don't have to.'_ "The problem is being able to contact each other immediately at need, and we know there is a way to do that. Thanks to you, Suigin Tou."

"To me?" Suigin Tou frowned and pondered this.

"Yes," Shinku said. "When you—"

"You're talking about exchanging our artificial spirits, aren't you?" Suigin Tou interrupted, evidently not in the mood to listen any longer. "Because even when I had control of Amethyst Dream and Lenpika, they still held a connection to Suisei Seki and Sousei Seki. If I hadn't held them tightly, they could have communicated no matter how far apart they were. So if each of us passed her spirit on to the next in line, that would make a circuit where anyone could reach everyone instantly."

"Very impressive," the Fifth Doll said sourly. Especially since it had taken her more than a day, and help from the Gardeners to boot, to come up with the plan Suigin Tou had so effortlessly divined. Shinku fought off memories of how badly Sousei Seki had shown her up the one time she wore her Kun-Kun Costume Set, and said, through teeth that were only slightly gritted, "Yes. That seems like the best approach."

"Hmmm..." Suigin Tou said, finally smiling again. "Shinku, I might be willing to go along with it. But..."

"But?" Shinku repeated frostily.

"I have two conditions. One, that you are the one giving me your spirit."

"I had already planned to," Shinku said with a sniff. "And that you would give Mei Mei to Sousei Seki."

"That's fine. And for the second condition..." Suigin Tou's smile widened. "You give me the fight I've wanted for so long. No more dodging or retreating or hiding behind your supposed idea of what Father really wants." She stepped forward, her wings rustling and growing larger. "I won't break you, but I've been waiting a long time for this."

"Have you really?" Shinku asked coolly, even as one corner of her mind flickered across the dimensions separating her from Jun.

He was seated on the floor of his bedroom, his eyes closed and his will focused. The ring on his finger shone stronger than any electric light in the Sakurada household, as Jun drew out power from himself, spun it quickly in an arc around him, then phased it back into his body seconds later. The exercise stretched his limits and promoted growth as effectively as burning power did, without the weakness that too much burning would cause.

A small, grim smile spread across Shinku's lips as she continued, "Then I accept both your conditions."

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"The quiet night continues," Megu sang softly, "...this is when it should be... Oh! Suigin Tou!" It wasn't surprising to see the First Doll appear when she sang, rising up from below to perch on her forever-open window, but Suigin Tou's appearance was certainly cause for startlement. Her dress wasn't actually torn or stained, but it—as well as the doll wearing it—looked quite rumpled and battered. "Are you all right?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Suigin Tou muttered grimly. _'Damn Shinku anyway! I'm more skilled than her now, I'm certain of it! But she still managed to win by pure brute force!'_ She seethed wordlessly for a few moments more, then pushed the worst of her frustration and anger away as she turned to Megu. _'With as much power as she was throwing around, she probably left that medium of hers half-dead from exhaustion.'_

"I..." Megu said worriedly. "Well... Did you have a fight?" she continued once she'd scraped together enough determination to disregard Suigin Tou's stated wish. "You should have used more of my life, Angel-san..."

"Megu, I already told you—" Suigin Tou jerked up short. "Wait a minute... used _more_ of your life?"

"That's right." Megu held up her rose ring. "It only glowed for a few seconds. I didn't even feel tired or strained after it stopped. But I could feel the energy leaving me. Ah... if you did have a fight, and if you didn't win because you needed more energy than you took, then..."

Suigin Tou was no longer listening. With a wordless cry of fear she darted to Megu's bedside, crouching down beside her and staring desperately. First the cloth covering Megu's frail chest, then the skin, then the tissues beneath... each barrier in turn fell before the First Doll's stare, allowing her to gaze deeper than medical science could reach.

Nearly a minute later, she finally dared relax. The wheel of shadow and cerulean fire that she had placed into her medium still spun. It was slower than before, the energies less than they had been, but that was no surprise—the construct needed regular reinforcement to keep from spinning down to nothing. The drain she hadn't even realized she'd done had certainly accelerated the entropic process, but the 'pacemaker' still held nearly half its strength. Carefully and tenderly she poured more into it, bringing it back to full power.

With that done, she stood upright. "It's been three weeks since you felt even a twinge from your heart. Isn't that right, Megu?"

"...Um, yes," the girl answered hesitantly. "That seems about right. It's been many years since I've had so many good days in a row. Or what the nurses call good days, anyway." Megu stared at Suigin Tou for a little longer, then looked down at her chest. "Suigin Tou, did you...?"

"Good." Suigin Tou turned away for a moment, staring out the window and down to a nearby tree, where once she had seen Laplace gazing up at her and her medium. She snarled silently down, then composed her features and turned back to Megu. "Come on," she continued, pulling the I.V. out of the girl's arm. "We're getting out of here."

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Author's Notes

Hopefully it doesn't seem too out-of-character, to have Shinku so willing to kill Laplace. The events of _Traumend_ showed us that she makes a fairly poor killer (to the point where she deliberately left Suigin Tou's Rosa Mystica alone at the end of the first season, in the hope that Rozen would bring her back). All the same, I suspect demon rabbits might be an exception to the rule, especially ones who escalate things as far as Laplace has here.

As for Suigin Tou, she'll never be my favorite doll, but she might just be the one most deserving of sympathy. This story isn't about her, but I have many potential follow-up ideas set in the universe of this fanfic, and depending on how many of those ultimately get written you could be seeing a lot more of Suigin Tou.


	6. The Nail That Stands Up

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 6: The Nail That Stands Up...

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The door to the counselor's office swung open. Tomoe pressed further back into the shadows of a nearby doorway. When Jun had overcome the last of his skittishness, catching him unawares had gone from being awkward to fun. She hadn't succeeded in a long time, though, and had resorted to a little subterfuge today to give her a better chance. As far as Jun knew, she would be tied up in after-school kendo practice today.

She waited until she heard the door close behind him and his footsteps head away down the corridor. As silently and gracefully as she could, she slipped out to sneak up behind him.

"Hey, Tomoe," Jun said before she took her fourth step. "No practice today after all?"

Tomoe heaved a sigh only slightly louder than her footfalls had been. His ring wasn't even visible, let alone glowing; he had to have done that all on his own, with no help from the Rose Bond. "You're very good, Jun," she said. "Are you sure you don't want to join the kendo club?"

"Heh. You never quit asking me all last year. Are you going to keep it up this year too?"

"Only until you..." Tomoe cut herself off. Jun's tone had tried to be light and carefree, but there had been tension and unhappiness underneath it. This wasn't the time for playful banter. "Jun, what's wrong? What did Akibahara-sensei say to you?"

Jun was quiet for a few moments, looking away from her. His shoulders sagged just enough for her to notice.

Tomoe crossed the rest of the distance between them and hesitantly touched his arm. "Jun?"

"It was supposed to just be a preliminary session to talk about what high schools I was thinking about," he said tightly. "Just like the ones half our class has had already. You know, discuss entry requirements, tuition, what subjects I need to focus on for which schools, all that stuff."

"Yes, I remember mine. Was that not what happened to you?"

"No," Jun growled. He started walking again. "Come on, Tomoe... I don't want to be here right now."

She followed quickly after him, not saying anything this time. Her satchel already held all the books she needed to take home, and Jun didn't seem interested in fetching his. He led the way directly out of the building and into the street beyond.

At that point he slowed down, but didn't stop entirely. "We did talk about which high school I could go to," he said at last. "Turns out there's only one."

Tomoe blinked. "What? That doesn't make any sense. Your grades aren't spectacular," they couldn't possibly be with him having missed most of his first year and a third of his second, "but they're good enough to let you take the tests for some good places. And with Shinku's power, you wouldn't have any trouble passing those. You should be able to go anywhere except the most elite schools!"

"You'd think that, wouldn't you." Jun sighed. "But that's not how it's going to be. I've got my assignment, and it's that or nothing. Or...?" He was silent for a little while, but just before Tomoe could say something he shook his head and announced, "No way am I going to that much trouble. Set up a fake identity and hide in it for three years, just so I can go somewhere other than they told me? Forget it."

"Where did they say you had to go, Jun?" Tomoe asked. "And why only one school?"

"Apparently something was passed last year called the Excess in Education Act," Jun grumbled. "It means that all the 'extraordinary' students are funneled to a few high schools. The one for our region is Furinkan."

Tomoe blinked. "I thought that place was just an urban legend," she murmured. She gave Jun a considering look, hoping that this might be an extended joke he was playing on her. Unfortunately, she was forced to abandon the thought. His upset and frustration were just too real for that. "This isn't fair," she stated. "You didn't start any of the fights last year, and there haven't been any so far this year."

"Give it time," Jun muttered. "Anybody stupid enough to scream at me in front of half the school for 'making him tear his own sister's clothes off' is too dumb to learn a lesson for real."

"But that's just it! You shouldn't be blamed; you're not the one causing problems," Tomoe declared. "If they want to isolate troublemakers, they ought to target Aki and Soichiro, not you!"

"According to Akibahara-sensei, it isn't about being a troublemaker," Jun said. "It's about what I can do, and what can happen around me, not so much the choices I make." He grimaced. "In my file, they've even got pictures from home. It seems like the neighbors were paying attention after all, at least a couple of times when everything got out of hand."

"That's even less fair," Tomoe protested, but with a certain air of resignation in her voice. Fair or not, it made more sense than castigating Jun for merely standing up for himself.

They walked in silence for a little while, before she spoke again. "Was there a school you wanted to attend?"

"I just thought I'd go to Nori's," he answered. "What about you?"

"I haven't decided. Although it would be nice to go someplace where I won't end up railroaded into student government again." Tomoe was quiet for a little while, then said, "Most of what I've heard about Furinkan is really unreliable. We should research it. It might not be a bad place at all."

"Mm," Jun grunted. "Maybe so, but from the look on Akibahara-sensei's face and the tone of his voice, I think I'll be glad to have Shinku watching my back."

"Shinku... watching your...?" Tomoe's question trailed off as she fought a sudden dizziness. For some unfathomable reason, Jun's image had blurred before her eyes. The rest of the world around him was perfectly clear, though... but wait, the blurring extended to a small area in front of him and on his right side, as if nestled in the crook of his arm...

Squinting and straining, Tomoe fought the disorientation, barely even hearing Jun's sudden alarmed repetition of her name. "What... what is...?" And then, with a nearly-tangible **POP**, everything settled into perfect clarity once more.

Nonetheless, another minute passed before she could finish the question. "Jun... what is Shinku doing there?"

Jun blinked. "What? Tomoe, you can...?" He was close enough now to catch her if she fell, his free arm stretched out but not quite grasping hold of her.

"She's looking straight through the concealment without any difficulty at all. Jun, strengthen the effect," Shinku said peremptorily.

"Huh?" Jun said, half turning to look at Shinku. "We don't need to do that. If I knew how to keep it from affecting specific people, I wouldn't have bothered hiding you from her in the first place."

"What a lax and willful servant you are," Shinku said. "We need to know if you can recover from a loss. What if once someone sees through the effect they can never be fooled again?"

Jun glanced away to Tomoe, who still looked a bit shell-shocked. "Why don't I just use my strongest effort to hide your Kun-Kun DVDs and see if you can find them?" he sniped back at Shinku. Then, turning to Tomoe, he asked, "Are you—OUCH—all right?"

"H-How...?" Tomoe swallowed. "Sakurada-kun, how long have you been bringing her...?"

He blinked, surprised at the less familiar mode of address. She hadn't used that since a few weeks into his return to school the previous year. _'But then again, it's not like she doesn't have an excuse to be rattled,'_ he thought. "Since middle of second term last year," he explained.

"I could hardly leave my servant to face the dangers of Laplace and Kira Kishou all by himself, now could I?" Shinku added.

"But... weren't those problems solved during our last vacation?" Tomoe asked.

"I could hardly leave my servant to face the dangers of boredom, indoctrination, and revisionist history all by himself, now could I?"

"With Shinku, every test I take is an adventure," Jun said dryly. "Half the answers she tells me are deliberately wrong, and I've got to tell them from the other, honest answers."

"Thereby learning helpful skills for the real world," Shinku said loftily.

"You're not fooling anyone, you know," Jun teased her back. "You just want to make me more like Kun-Kun. If I ever wake up covered in fur, I'll know who to blame."

Tomoe watched the two banter back and forth for several minutes more, Shinku occasionally whipping a hair-tassel against the side of Jun's head in response to some particularly snide comment. Each time he yelped and complained, despite the fact that none of the strikes left a red mark (and, as far as she could tell, one didn't connect at all). "I see," she said quietly.

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Author's Notes

As Tomoe is aware of the connection between Shinku and Jun's rose ring, she cannot see the ring while under the effect of Jun's concealing Shinku from everyone, unless she is also witnessing him do something else that she knows would require him to use that power. Hence the incorrect conclusion she draws toward the beginning of this chapter.

F.Y.I., for anyone curious as to how the title for this chapter applies, there is a Japanese (I think) saying: "The nail which stands up is hammered down." There's also something in there about the tallest tree being the one cut, or something like that. The saying is in support of conformity and fitting in. That goal, of course, is right out for Jun these days, but on the other hand he is now strong enough to stand up/out/apart from the norm _without_ being beaten down for it.


	7. Nori's Question

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 7: Nori's Question

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"It's very quiet without everyone else around, isn't it?" Nori asked. She and Shinku were seated at the kitchen table, with a cushion underneath Shinku to boost her up. Each held a cup filled with steaming amber fluid.

"It is," Shinku agreed. "With Hina Ichigo visiting Tomoe, and Suisei Seki with Sousei Seki at the watchmaker's shop, it's more peaceful today than it has been for a long time." She took a sip of her tea. "It's a pity that Jun isn't here to enjoy it as well."

Nori looked down into her cup. "I know. But I really did need all those things from the market, and I couldn't carry that much myself. He didn't seem too bothered by my asking him."

"Mm." Shinku blew daintily on her tea for a few moments.

"I never noticed before..." Nori said slowly. "Why do you do that? Blow on the tea?"

Shinku blinked. "To cool it down."

"But..." Nori looked down into her cup again. "That's not necessary, right? You could drink it even if it was boiling hot, and it wouldn't hurt you."

"I could drink it that hot and not let it hurt me," Shinku qualified. "But it would not taste good."

"Is it good now?" Nori asked. "I know I wasn't very good at making it when you first got here."

"In some ways it is much better," Shinku answered. "In others, it's not quite so good."

"I see," Nori said quietly.

"That time, I told Jun what the problem was with the way you prepared tea, why the flavor of the leaves was lost. I also told him that the tea had a very kind taste to it." Shinku stared at her companion, willing Nori to look up and meet her gaze. "This tea has solved the earlier problem. But it tastes of uncertainty, almost stronger than the kindness."

Nori closed her eyes and exhaled a long breath, saying nothing in response.

"Nori, whatever you wanted to ask me, you should ask me. Jun did not mind doing those chores for you, but he's still hurrying to finish them. He is already a third of the way through the list."

"H-how?" Nori's eyes shot open. "How could he go that fast, how could you know...?" Abruptly, she shook her head. "Why would I ask such a silly question, though?" she asked with feeble humor, bonking her knuckles against the side of her head. "It's the bond between you."

"Yes."

"Jun uses it to keep anyone from noticing you at school. So why shouldn't he do the same thing to himself, to keep anyone from seeing him run like the wind? And of course running so fast should be easy for him; after all, he's even using that power to make himself grow stronger and taller."

"It will be a little strange, to have to look farther up to meet his eyes," Shinku said. "By the time he is finished, I think he may be even taller than Enju."

"Finished... how much longer will that be?" Nori asked, finally making eye contact with Shinku again. "You asked me once if I thought it was okay for things to continue as they were. I said no, but I couldn't think what I needed to do to make them better."

"But when the time came, you did just what Jun needed you to do."

Nori smiled at the memory. "I did," she said quietly. "He's come a long way since then, hasn't he?"

"A very long way," Shinku agreed. "And halfway through your list."

"Ah!" Nori exclaimed. "I just... I don't... Shinku-chan, what happens now? Where are things going? What's going to happen tomorrow, or next week, or next year? Is everything just going to continue like this, some things staying the same while others never stop changing?!"

"Nori..." Shinku murmured. "Isn't that a good way to describe life?"

"I don't know," Nori answered. "I always thought that life, for you and all the others, was to become Alice. All the fights were about that, at least at first, and then after that you were fighting because there were other people attacking you. But Laplace is gone now, and you were able to show your last little sister what kind of a demon he really was. So there aren't any more problems with her. You did what your Father told you, and got Hina Ichigo and Sousei Seki back, and I thought all that's left is for you to solve his last riddle."

"And discover how to become Alice without playing the Alice Game," Shinku supplied. "Don't you think we are working on it?"

"I know Sousei Seki-chan is," Nori returned. What she really meant was clear in what she didn't say.

"Suigin Tou as well," Shinku replied. "Though I believe there is something else on her mind. She has not told me what that might be, though... Regardless, she is working very hard to find an answer."

"And what about you, Shinku-chan?" Nori asked quietly. "Jun goes to school, and you still go with him. Even after there's no more threats that might attack him there, and even after they told him he couldn't go to a normal high school. Whenever I see him, his ring is always glowing at least a tiny bit. He's grown half an inch in the last month..." She closed her eyes. "I can't see what will happen to my little brother either way," she whispered. "If you stay or if you go."

"And why should you be able to see what will happen, Nori?" Shinku said, gently but firmly. "Would that not be for him to decide, either way?"

"I suppose," Nori answered. "But... can you at least tell me what decision you made?"

Shinku was quiet for a long time. "I do not know," she said at last. "I don't know what the future will hold. I am still learning what it really means, to think about that at all."

Nori's brow crinkled. "I don't understand. You always looked to the future, even from the very beginning, right? You wanted to become Alice and meet Father again. The Alice Game was in the way, and what it would cost meant you didn't try very hard to push on to that future, but it was always there in front of you."

"But that is just it!" Shinku declared. "It was our destiny, _my_ destiny. One choice, no other option. Eventually, we sisters would have to fight and break each other, so one winner could step over all the others to become Alice. It was unavoidable. The only question was who would win and who would lose.

"Can you imagine what it is like, to live under a shadow like that? With your only choices destruction or transformation? You cannot afford doubt, or second-guesses. You have to believe that becoming Alice would be worth everything. You cannot stop and ask yourself if you even want that at all." She shook her head, and continued in a whisper, "No, that is a thought you can't ever let come within a thousand miles of you..."

Nori didn't even hear the whisper, as she was too surprised by what she'd already heard. "Y-You don't?" she asked at last. "But... but all those times..."

_'All those times when chasing that dream hurt us so very badly,'_ Shinku thought bitterly. "I do not know," she said, looking away. "Alice is more sublime than any flower, purer than any gem, and without a touch of impurity. She is a dream that lives inside of Father, not something that could ever be realized in this world. I haven't solved all the riddle, but I went far enough to know this." She turned back, staring at Nori with frightening intensity. "Becoming Alice means your old life, your old self, would be gone for good. All that you have, all that you are, lost to become the vision he carries in his heart."

"But... to become perfect like that... isn't it worth what you're paying?"

Shinku closed her eyes. "If he wants me to believe that, then he needs to come to me and convince me," she said. "He could, you know. None of us know the way to him, we only know that whoever becomes Alice will meet Father again. But he could come to us at any time, at least in our dreams or when we are in the N-field. And he doesn't. He just stands too far away for us to see him and expects us to cross that distance all on our own."

"Shinku-chan... I never knew you felt like that..." Nori said sadly. "I... you know, Jun and I don't get to see our parents either. They're overseas, working to make the money we need. I know it bothers Jun, and it's painful for me too. But I still love them, and look forward to the day I can see them again."

"To the day they come back to you," Shinku riposted. Then her features softened, and she heaved a sigh. "But I understand what you're saying. Never think I do not love Father," she said quietly. "I do. But he is not God, Nori. He is a man, probably the greatest master craftsman ever, but still a man.

"Does it sound so strange, to hear me say that?" she asked in response to Nori's boggling look. "It took Jun and Enju both for me to finally see it. Enju, who learned so many things from Father, who could do things that I only ever thought Father could. And Jun, who loves us as we are and says that we are wonderful, not lacking, not worthless if we don't reach farther and grab hold of perfection."

"Jun said that to you?" Nori said. "I never knew that... I... I'm proud of him."

"You should be," Shinku declared. "If he chooses, I believe he might even surpass Father. It is certain he could create his own living dolls one day, if he honed his talent enough."

"And if he had someone to tell him how," Nori murmured, staring thoughtfully at Shinku.

"What is it?" Shinku asked, as the silence stretched uncomfortably long.

"Just that I think I understand a little better now, what you mean about looking to the future and seeing there could be more than you knew before." Nori smiled. "Thank you, Shinku-chan. I don't feel so uncertain now. I hope you find the answers you're looking for."

"I will," Shinku declared. "By the way... please do not mention any of this to anyone else. It would be a very bad idea to let it get back to Suigin Tou."

"I wouldn't say anything to her," Nori said. "And... what about Jun?"

"Jun?" Shinku echoed, a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Yes. Don't you think you should tell him?"

"I already did. It was two months ago, after the final battle with Laplace." Her expression faded as she stared away into the distance. Then, shaking her head, Shinku continued, "That was when I confronted what I was feeling about these things."

"I see. I'm glad," Nori said. "Come to think of it, with as fast as you said Jun was moving, shouldn't he have been back already?"

The smile was back now, and much more obvious. "Yes." Shinku took a sip of her tea, ignoring the fact that it had gone cold. "I was lying."

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Author's Notes

Rozen's intervention at the end of _Traumend_ and his revelation that there are other ways to become Alice than playing the Alice game would naturally shore up Shinku's faltering confidence in that goal... for a time. But one blurred appearance during all the centuries the Maidens have spent trying to find the way to him—and that done only when otherwise there'd be no-one left to become Alice—is hardly enough to silence all the questions Jun has asked about what kind of a father he is.


	8. Here Be Dragons

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 8: Here Be Dragons

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"So that is the infamous Furinkan High School," Shinku observed, staring up at the building.

"Not very elegant, is it," Jun said with a grin. "I bet it won't be suitable for your lifestyle."

"Neither was your room when I first arrived," she replied, catching the reference and smiling back at him. "I'll just have to make whatever changes are needed here."

"Like changing the school mascot from a pineapple to a rose?"

She nodded. "And moving the lunch hour so it coincides with Detective Kun-Kun."

"Just don't make me correct the teachers when they get stuff wrong, okay?" Jun asked, turning serious. "You saw how well that went over, in our last year at Uwaitodani."

"Of course I won't make you do that, Jun," she reassured him.

He blinked. "What? You're agreeing that easily?"

"I will do it myself."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Shinku..." Jun said. "I could have sworn you just implied you didn't want me to hide you anymore. That you want to come to school with me absolutely visible to anybody who's watching."

"Yes, I did," Shinku replied. "Is that a problem? You aren't ashamed of me, are you Jun?"

"No, of course not!" he yelled, dimly aware that he wasn't reaching the standard of poise and calm assurance that a question like that really needed. "But... it's just..."

"Just what?" she said calmly, looking up at him from her position in the crook of his arm. His grip had involuntarily tightened around her when she asked her previous question, which was all the reassurance she really needed. But she certainly wouldn't object to more.

"Just that you could have given me a bit more warning!"

"Now you're being unreasonable," she declared. "After all, there are still two weeks until classes start."

Jun took several deep breaths. "Okay, okay, you're right. And I guess it was better to tell me here, instead of at home where Hina Ichigo or Suisei Seki could overhear."

"Of course. But you know, Jun, that excuse you gave them will not hold Suisei Seki forever," Shinku cautioned him. "She knows you are always working to strengthen your power and skill. I think she may already be starting to doubt that you couldn't really hide two of us at once."

Jun grimaced. "Hopefully she buys it for at least a while longer. I hate telling her she has to stay home, but I'm just not strong enough yet. Not to hide the kind of mischief she'd make."

"Do you think any level of strength will be enough for that?" Shinku asked, remembering the antics Suisei Seki had gotten up to the previous year when she was watching out for Nori. The critical need to keep her friend safe had allowed Suisei Seki to temporarily block out her usual shyness, but that hadn't been an entirely good thing. From what Nori had told them, the Gardener had managed to spawn eight new school legends without getting caught.

The mind boggled at what she could achieve with someone else covering for her.

"Not to hide it completely," Jun admitted. "But at least I might eventually be able to survive."

The two were quiet for several moments, staring thoughtfully up at the building. "Well, Shinku?" Jun said at last. "Have you sensed anything that might work?"

The Fifth Doll shook her head. "We need to get closer," she said, looking frustrated. "I can feel a lot of strange energies. I think there's a good chance we could use something in there as a portal, maybe more than one thing. But we need to go inside and look around to be sure."

"There better be something. There's no way I'm making that commute every morning," Jun muttered. He engaged the particular metaphysical twist that hid both himself and Shinku from observation. "Okay, let's go."

"Why are you hiding us?" she asked as he walked toward the doors.

"So nobody sees us break into the building," he answered. "Don't tell me you didn't notice that crowd out on the athletic field."

"Of course I did," Shinku said loftily. "But their presence means Furinkan must get some use even during the holidays, just like your old school. Since that is true, there would not be anything suspicious about us going inside."

Jun looked from Shinku, to the obviously-chained-shut doors ahead of them, and back to Shinku. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need to watch _more_ Detective Kun-Kun," he said. Then he looked back to the doors. "Who puts that kind of a heavy-duty chain on the door to a school anyway? It's as thick around as my wrist."

"Jun..." Suddenly there was nothing at all lofty about Shinku's tone. "It won't open."

"Huh?" he said blankly.

She lifted one hand to her lips and blew, scattering ethereal rose petals into the air. They streamed forward to swirl around the chain... and burned ineffectively to nothingness. "I have never seen anything like this," she said.

Jun boggled at the door for several long moments. He launched a few minor probes of his own, tendrils of power that dissipated as soon as they touched the chain or padlock. On the other hand, the very first window he checked unlatched and slid open without a hitch. "What kind of crazy place is this?" he asked.

"LOOK OUT BELOW!!"

The warning wasn't nearly enough. Fortunately, the interlocked bodies that smashed to earth missed them by a good ten feet.

Jun and Shinku stared, eyes wide and jaws dangling, as the two newcomers jumped out of their impact-crater and twisted into furious motion, grappling with each other with teeth clenched, muscles straining, and arcs of blue lightning racing up and down their bodies. There was a series of furious twists, grabs, and contortions before the black-haired Japanese managed to simultaneously push the blond Westerner off balance and spin around to his side. Abandoning wrestling moves and light shows alike, the boy screamed something about roasting chestnuts and lashed out too quickly for either Jun or Shinku to follow, his hands becoming merely a blur.

They could see the results clearly enough, though. The foreigner sailed through the air once more, unconscious even before he impacted with the boundary wall. "Take that, you dumb jerk!" the Japanese boy called after him. "You better not back out of our agreement, either!"

"Agreement?" Shinku said faintly, forgetting for the moment that Jun had already tripled the strength of the cloaking effect.

"Yeah. After he lost, he had to start using his real name." The mysterious boy snorted. "Calling himself the Ragin' Gaijin Raijin... At least he had a move worth learning."

"D-Does this sort of thing happen often here?" she continued, still on autopilot.

"Pretty much, yeah." Something seemed to occur to the boy. "Wait, you're new here?" he asked, directing the question to Jun. "I thought you came to watch the fight and were trying to get into the school after you saw what Nabiki was charging for the Port-a-Potties."

"How can you not know you haven't seen us before?" Jun wanted to know.

"Eh, all students of Martial Arts Puppetry start to look alike after you've been in enough challenge matches." The boy blinked, suddenly staring harder at Shinku. "Wait a second..."

Before anyone could say anything else, two more people joined the scene. The girls arrived by dashing around the school from the direction of the athletics field rather than plummeting from the heavens, but the way they immediately grasped hold of the unnamed boy and began congratulating him on his win was strange enough to make up for that bit of normalcy. It would have been a little familiar, Jun thought dazedly, if the Japanese brunette and the purple-haired gaijin had been fighting with each other in the process. In that case it would at least have looked like something out of an anime. But no, there was no hint of jealousy that he could see.

"You guys _are _new here, right?" the boy asked a bit later, after the most excessive of the congratulations had died down. "This is prob'ly the best introduction you could've got to the place, something that shows you how weird it can get and gives you a show to watch without putting you in danger. My name's Ranma Saotome, pleased to meet you."

"And I'm Ukyo Saotome," said the brunette.

"Shampoo Saotome," chimed in the Chinese girl. "Nihao!"

"Shinku, Fifth Doll of Rozen Maiden," the doll in question managed. After a long moment of silence, she cleared her throat. When that received no response, she twitched her head irritably, sending one long tassel of hair flying up to bonk Jun on the ear.

"Ow! Um, I'm Jun Sakurada," he said. "And shouldn't you NOT be able to see us?"

"Huh?" Ranma stared blankly at him for a few moments, after which his gaze shifted from perplexed, to focused, to knowing. "Oh. Sakurada, that stealth technique won't cut it around here. The only people who won't see through it are the ones who're too weak to be a threat anyway."

"I see. Thanks," Jun managed. He then continued in a mumble, "On the bright side, now I've got a cast-iron excuse for Suisei Seki."

"No prob." Ranma looked thoughtful. "Sakurada... that name sounds familiar."

The girls standing on either side of him gave simultaneous annoyed twitches. Shampoo tossed her head and sent a wave of hair up to break against Ranma's face, provoking a sneeze after a fortunate few seconds' delay. "Hmm—not as easy as you made it look," she said, giving Shinku a glance of respect.

"What was that for?" Ranma protested.

Ukyo rolled her eyes. "The school administration only gave you five incoming freshmen, Ranchan. Just five new 'special' students that you, Senior Classman Ranma Saotome, would be responsible for meeting and introducing to Furinkan." She punched him lightly on the arm. "Considering how often new people around here wind up challenging you, I'd've thought you could at least remember when you got a handful of forewarning."

"Oh, yeah. Heh heh." Ranma gave her a sheepish grin. "Would it help if I said that's what I count on you an' Sham-chan for?"

"Try again, Airen," Shampoo said, her voice a cross between a growl and a purr.

It was Ranma's turn to roll his eyes. "I meant _one thing_ I count on you for." He hooked an arm around her and gave her a squeeze. "Definitely not everything."

"That's better," she said happily, snuggling against him.

"Um..." This was Jun. "So... you said... as an upperclassman, you were assigned to show me around?"

"Yeah. And we should probably get moving before the crowd back there decide they've given Ucchan and Sham-chan enough private time with me." Ranma pulled reluctantly away from the girls, glanced at the chained and warded door, shook his head with a sigh, and slipped easily through the open window. "Coming early to see the place was a smart idea," he continued once everyone had followed him inside. "You're starting off a lot better here than _I_ did, I can tell you that. Just don't think it'll be like this every day."

"It won't?" Shinku said. She tried to sound calm and collected, but relief and hopefulness stared obviously through the façade.

"Right. At least half the time you'll get caught up in whatever's going on and have to fight too."

"Jun?" Shinku asked, after a long, sticky silence. "I know it's too late to change my mind about you hiding me while we are here. But is it too late to find whoever authored the Excess in Education Act and make him pay?"

"Still a little too early, I think," Jun said. "No way in hell is it too late." He dredged up a chuckle. "By the way... good luck changing this place to suit your lifestyle."

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Author's Notes

It's true that in Ranma's senior year Nabiki would no longer be a student at Furinkan, but he is too much fun and profit for her to abandon him just yet. The reference to the Furinkan mascot is a tribute to D. B. Sommer's Ranma-Marvel fusion fanfic Avenging. The characters and concepts of Ranma ½ are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, and Shogakukan. I suppose I should also mention that the crossover here is with the anime version rather than the manga.

It isn't actually Jun's fault that his hiding technique won't work at Furinkan, as it is based on the human impulse to not see things that don't fit your worldview. Ranma might be wrong when he implies that there's _anyone_ at Furinkan it would fool.


	9. What Are Obstacles For?

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 9: What Are Obstacles For?

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For the fifth time in as many minutes, the door to the Furinkan rooftop cracked open. The latest student to do this peered through the gap, spotted the blanket and the three girls sitting on it, gave a sigh of disappointment, closed the door, and trudged back down the stairwell. Just like all the others.

"I knew the academic standards here were somewhat hit-and-miss," Shinku said, "but are there really so many students who don't know how to read?"

Ukyo blinked. "Huh?"

"I put a note saying 'Do Not Disturb' on the other side of that door." Shinku grimaced. "And I hope it wasn't presumptuous of me, but I even stated who it was that did not want to be disturbed."

"Well... no offense, Sugar, but that was a little presumptuous. You've only been here a couple of weeks. That's not enough time to build a rep that'd make people back off from reading your name on the note."

Shinku said nothing in response, but did wince ever so slightly.

"That was not what you mean, was it," Shampoo asked, giving the Fifth Doll a shrewd glance. "You wrote that you were eating lunch with Ukyo and me."

Shinku inclined her head. Two weeks might not have been enough time to build a towering reputation at Furinkan, but it had been long enough for her to witness what these girls were capable of. "As I said, I hope it was not presuming too much to drop your names like that."

"Not at all," Ukyo said. "We were the ones who invited you to lunch, right? Heck, I even told you that part of that was so you'd have a nice, peaceful break from the chaos."

"The problem is that you wrote the note your own self," Shampoo explained, getting to her feet. "If Ukyo or I had, we would not have stupid uninvited guests sticking their noses in." She strode over to the door, opened it, whipped out her trademark scimitar, and drove it through the door just below Shinku's note. The Amazon closed the door, walked calmly back to the blanket, and sat down again. "They see that, and they will know it isn't just some silly freshman lying to get privacy."

Shinku smiled. "Thank you."

Everyone was quiet for a few moments after that, enjoying the superb tea Shinku had brought for her contribution to the lunch. After two years of 'suggestions' from Shinku, Nori's brewing capabilities had risen remarkably high.

"I've noticed you eating lunch with several freshman girls over the past two weeks," Shinku said, refilling her empty cup as Shampoo began serving the first course of the meal. "Is this something like Ranma's task to show Jun and those others around? A kindness to help newcomers adjust?"

Ukyo shrugged. "Kind of, except we decided on our own rather than the Powers That Be telling us we ought to."

"And we pick the ones we think need it the most," Shampoo added. "OW! Why you poke me so hard, Spatula Girl?!"

"You're not supposed to say it flat-out like that, you Byankhala barbarian! We're trying to be friendly here, not insult people!"

"Is NOT insult! If you had pay attention last week instead of spend whole time focusing on silly new okonomiyaki recipe, you would know she had real trouble with stupid teacher Hinako!"

"How DARE you call my Miso Ostrich Okonomiyaki _silly_?!"

Shinku sipped calmly at her tea, watching as the two girls shot to their feet and glared daggers at each other. She was well aware that a calming word from her at this moment would have disrupted (or at least, delayed) the confrontation, but two weeks had taught her more about Furinkan's two Alpha Females than just their power level.

Ten minutes later, the rooftop had sustained mild-to-medium damage and the air was heavy with discharged chi. Both Shampoo and Ukyo were flat on their backs staring up at the sky, sweating, breathing heavily, and smiling. "Call it a draw, you purple-haired bimbo?"

"Sound good to me, you okonomiyaki obsessive."

The two girls pulled themselves back to their feet and returned to the blanket, smiling appreciatively when they saw Shinku had used the interlude to serve up all the remaining food.

"That was impressive," the Fifth Doll said after the first few minutes of silent eating/recovery had passed. "I was sure you wouldn't let your battle destroy our meal, but it was still inspiring to watch."

"You think so?" The smile faded from Shampoo's face, leaving her looking vaguely haunted. "We have been through training that teach way more control than that."

Ukyo winked. "If you thought this was something, you should see Ranchan in action. He could have fought like that while eating his lunch with one hand." Her statement brought Shampoo's smile back and widened Shinku's.

"I don't mean to brag, but so could Jun," Shinku bragged. "And he hasn't been training since he was _literally_ the size of a grasshopper."

"Yeah, well, don't think Ranma honey is gonna hold off forever on challenging him to spar," Ukyo replied. In the next instant the chopsticks that had been in her right hand were nowhere to be seen, replaced by the metallic blur of a mini-spatula spinning blindingly fast. The move was barely enough to shield her from the tea Shinku spit out in shock.

**Cough Hack** "W-What was that?" the Fifth Doll repeated feebly. "He... he would?"

"Now who is not picking her words right?" Shampoo sniped at her fellow Saotome. "Not like that, Shinku. It would just be for fun and to give each of them new ideas on how to grow. Ranma would not hurt your Airen."

"Yes, I suppose you're right," Shinku admitted. "But I would prefer it if he waited longer. A lot longer." Then she blinked. Suddenly neither Ukyo nor Shampoo were paying any attention to her; Ukyo had turned to Shampoo with a glare and was now speaking in what was presumably the Chinese girl's native language.

" Thought we agree we not going to talk about that! " the chef growled.

" No, you agreed you wouldn't, and that was what I agreed too. That way 'we' wouldn't, " Shampoo retorted.

" Why Shampoo so stubborn about this?! We should not push! Let her find out on her own, in her own time! It going to happen as she spend more time here, listen to more stories about the early days. She is not ready for this now! "

" The hell she isn't. You wouldn't say that if you'd watched her and Jun deal with demon-witch-brat Hinako last week, instead of spending all your time working on the perfect ratio of miso to ostrich. I'm not putting this off any longer. "

" I do not mean to be rude, " Shinku said coolly, in Mandarin considerably more fluent than Ukyo's, " but I think I need to be included in this conversation. "

That little ploy was as effective as she could wish in gaining the other girls' attention. Their heads whipped around quickly enough to pull several hairs loose from their bindings, strands which toinged humorously outward. They stared wide-eyed at her for a few moments, before Shampoo shook her head, smoothed down her hair, and regained most of her composure. "Told you so, Ukyo. Even fate agrees with me."

"Oh, come on! You of all people ought to know better than to say something's wrong, just because there's coincidences and twists of fate that fight against it!"

Shampoo opened and closed her mouth several times. "Um, okay, good point," she said at last. "But I'm still going to tell her."

Ukyo threw her hands up in the air. "Fine, whatever, charge right ahead. It's not like pushing to get what you wanted right away never bit you on the ass," she continued under her breath as she got to her feet, stalked off to the side, set up her portable grill, and began cooking okonomiyaki to settle her nerves.

"And what do you want, Shampoo?" Shinku asked, staring steadily into the girl's strange red eyes.

"That was not what she meant," the Amazon replied. "Not that I want something from you. She is worried that if we have this talk, is like I am pushing you to make same mistakes she and I both made with Ranma, with Jun."

"Ah... I don't understand what you mean by that," Shinko confessed, wariness giving way to bewilderment.

"Stupid Japanese language, makes it too hard to say things plainly," Shampoo groused. "Never mind stories about the early days with Ranma. Too many to tell, we'd be up here for a year. What I trying to say is that you love Jun, yes?"

"Yes, that is right," Shinku said, wariness beginning to creep back into her voice. There was certainly no difficulty in admitting she cared deeply for him... but she was beginning to get a little concerned by the repeated references to Shampoo's relationship with her husband. If the Amazon was trying to draw some kind of parallel... well, that was simply absurd. Really, it was ridiculous enough that she shouldn't even be thinking about it.

"Good to hear you admit it when someone asks you straight out," Shampoo said with a smirk. "Instead of just not protesting when I called him 'your Airen'."

Shinku's mouth dropped open. "Th-That is not what I meant!"

"Mm-hm. Not as far as you meant to say out loud, maybe."

With supreme effort, Shinku bit back the first few responses that came to mind. "Shampoo," she said with exaggerated patience, "I know that in a place like this, Jun and I are not all that strange. But that does not make us—or rather, me—just like everyone else. Yes, I love Jun very much. His compassion, his determination, the courage I watched him learn over the first months of our partnership..." She paused, and ran a hand over the dress she was wearing, a deep blue that matched her eyes perfectly. Life at Furinkan was far too strenuous for her to wear her old crimson gown, and so Jun spent much of his free time making new garments for her. "And his skill and grace at repairing damaged things and creating beautiful new ones," she murmured.

Then she looked up, her eyes as determined as Jun's ever were. Loosening the dress at one cuff, she drew it up until the joint at her elbow was exposed. "As a Rozen Maiden, I love him. So do Suisei Seki and Hina Ichigo, and even Sousei Seki cares for him enough that it could probably be called 'love'. But we are not human, Shampoo. We are dolls, and the love dolls can give is very different from what you are talking about."

She paused, gathering her strength, then continued, "The closest any of us could ever come to _that_, would be what I have done with Jun. I have... taken certain actions... that would help him be more courageous with girls in general. More ready to someday find someone who can love him like you mean. Perhaps you saw and misunderstood some of those actions."

"That's your story and you're sticking to it, hmm?" Shampoo asked, sounding remarkably unphased by Shinku's declaration. "Never mind how I watched you scare ten different girls away from him, some of who were pretty nice." She winced at the glare Shinku sent in response to this. "Well, maybe Ukyo is right. Maybe I was pushing you to do something you're not ready for."

"It is not a question of being ready!" Shinku snapped, her patience beginning to wear dangerously thin. "What part of 'I'm a doll, not a human' was unclear just now?"

"Of course that is obstacle," Shampoo said. "But once you're here long enough, you see that living in Nerima is all about beating those."

Shinku stood up and brushed imaginary dust off her dress. "Thank you for the lunch," she said as politely as she could manage. "But I really must be going now."

"Before you do, at least listen to one story. Okay?" Shampoo asked.

"Shampoo, I really do not think..." Shinku's voice trailed off as she got a good look at the expression on the lavender-haired girl's face. She exhaled heavily and sat back down, reminding herself that despite what the Amazon was actually accomplishing, Shampoo was only trying to help. "All right. One story. If _you_ agree to persuade Ranma not to challenge Jun during this term."

"Okay, sure." Shampoo paused to collect her thoughts, then began.

"Once there was a boy, strong and brave and kind. He was a fighter, a very good one. He had a few weaknesses, just like everyone, but the biggest of them wasn't his fault.

"He had a bad training accident when he was little. It made him terrified of cats, more afraid of them than anything. And it was a fear he could never beat, never get rid of... because there was a cat's soul tied up inside him, trapped somewhere it shouldn't ever have been and terrified, unable to get out.

"It was a really, really bad training accident.

"Many years after that, the boy met a girl. She understood the important things about him, or at least she didn't take very long to see them. But he couldn't see those things about her, because he couldn't get close enough. Because a little after meeting him, the girl got the worst curse anyone who loved the boy could ever get. She got cursed to turn into a cat whenever cold water splashed on her, and only hot water would turn her back.

"The girl didn't know what to do about it, that she had a curse that was so horrible for the boy. Sometimes she tried to make him get used to her cat-body, sometimes she tried to show him how his own curse didn't matter at all to her. Most of the time, she just didn't think about it."

"Was she cured eventually?" Shinku interjected, drawn into the tale despite herself. She could see the emotions shining in Shampoo's eyes, and had a pretty good idea of who 'the boy' and 'the girl' were.

"Y-Yes," Shampoo answered, knocked out of her carefully rehearsed speech.

"After a long, hazardous quest where she faced terrible trials and great obstacles?" Shinku guessed further, with the faintest of bittersweet smiles on her face. No matter how inspiring the tale of Shampoo's triumph over her curse might be, there were precious few parallels to her own situation. "It's a nice story, Shampoo."

"Actually, her great-grandmother bailed her butt out," Ukyo interjected.

"Who is telling this story, Ukyo?" Shampoo asked irritably. "You or me?"

"Look, you can't expect me to just sit quietly while you make this epic saga out of your journey. I'll see your year-and-a-half struggle and raise you a decade."

Meanwhile, Shinku was still blinking bewilderedly. "What about your great-grandmother? I have heard a few students mention her, but nothing very specific."

"Whole story is way too long to tell," Shampoo said. "And doesn't matter anyway. What I was getting at is how Ranma and I solve that big, bad problem I told you about. Great-Grandmother is very old, very wise—"

"Not to mention powerful enough to scare the spit out of you," Ukyo muttered. "I still can't believe she and Happosai kept those masks on for so long."

"A-HEM!" Shampoo said, clearing her throat forcefully enough to make Shinku's ears ring. "Even as good as Great-Grandmother is, she didn't understand about the cat spirit in Ranma for a long time. When she did, problem was like one of those silly knots that disappear when you pull them tight. She sat me and Ranma down, and switched our curses, and then put his cat-body curse together with the cat spirit in him, pulled them both out of him to set—"

"Wait, what?" It was Shinku's turn to interrupt the Amazon, who glanced disparagingly at Ukyo and muttered something about setting a bad example for the impressionable little freshmen. "You said earlier that Ranma had a curse, but I thought you were talking about how there was a cat soul inside him. That was not it?"

"No." Shampoo gave a grin very remniscent of the curse she'd once borne, and wondered why Shinku was struggling not to flinch back. "Ranma was cursed a little earlier at the same place I was. Got a different curse but it worked the same: cold water to splash him, to turn him into his other body, and only hot water would change him back to his old self. That is how pools of sorrow Jusenkyo works—when you fall in a spring, you get the shape of whatever drowned there." She smiled all the wider, pulled out a carefully-labeled map of the cursed training ground, and handed it to Shinku. "Guess what spring Ranma fell into."

An idea was already stirring at the back of Shinku's mind. Though it was little more than a wild surmise, that was still enough to make her fingers tremble as she accepted the map from Shampoo... and to make them spasm open as one name sprang off it straight for her heart.

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Author's Notes

If ten minutes seems like far too short a time for Shampoo and Ukyo to battle to near-exhaustion, then I wasn't clear enough in what I was trying to imply. Just so it is clear, they were throwing around energy levels that dwarf any fight either of them participated in during the original series (unless you count it as Shampoo 'participating' in the final battle between Ranma and Cologne over the Phoenix Pill).


	10. A Day at the Beach

Atmung

A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka

Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.

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Chapter 10: A Day at the Beach

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A beautiful summer's day. A gentle breeze, swaying the tall oceanside grasses. A tiny beach, isolated in the middle of rocky coastline where no-one would stumble upon them. The ingredients for a perfectly peaceful afternoon, or so everyone had thought.

A picnic basket rested atop a large, flat rock, with an ice chest on the ground nearby. Three teenagers reclined on blankets, one girl reading while the other girl and boy just drowsed in the sun. Another blanket lay abandoned, as the woman who had spread it out was busy snapping photographs of the four remaining beachgoers.

Hina Ichigo looked up from the sand castle she and Kanaria were building. "How much longer until she runs outta film?" she asked, her lips forming a pout.

"She's got sixteen more rolls," Kanaria answered without bothering to look at her medium. "But why does it matter? She's not making you dress up or telling you what to do or anything."

"Yeah, but all those squeals about how cute we are! It's scaring away the seagulls."

"She's not gonna stop that when she runs out of film, you know."

Hina Ichigo stuck her lips out farther, proving once again that she was the Rozen Maiden Princess of the Pout.

"You ought to be thankful for her, Chibi Ichigo," pronounced Suisei Seki, appearing suddenly behind the smallest doll and looming over her with a dark grin. "Seagulls really like blue; that's why they live near the water. And you're the only one of us wearing a blue bathing suit. If it weren't for Micchan, they'd already have flown down and torn it to shreds."

"R-Really?" Hina Ichigo said fearfully, her green eyes widening and her golden curls standing slightly on end. Behind her Kanaria rolled her eyes, but kept silent. The self-proclaimed 'most intelligent doll of Rozen Maiden' had learned long ago not to get between Suisei Seki and a prank.

"Mm-hm," Suisei Seki affirmed. "They like red too, but not as much. That's probably why Shinku wore that suit." The dolls turned to look at the closest towel. The girl lying on it was clearly not Japanese, with her long blonde hair, blue eyes, and creamy pale skin. She wore a reserved one-piece suit of crimson and white. "That way the birds will just tear off some of it. She can pretend to be all modest and still show off for Jun." Suisei Seki glowered at the girl, before switching her gaze to the tall, black-haired, leanly-muscled young man one towel over. The glower faded to something more wistful as she did so.

"Um... I don't get it," Hina Ichigo confessed.

_'Neither do I,'_ Kanaria thought uncertainly. _'Was she really trying to scare Hina Ichigo, or just distract her from Micchan? Or maybe Suisei Seki was the one who got distracted?'_

All of a sudden Shinku sat up with a gasp, her eyes wide and her hands crossing over her chest to clasp each opposite arm. Jun was up an instant later, looking at her with concern. "Shinku? Are you okay? You look like you're... cold?"

"I... I feel something." She was trembling now. "Something is chilling me, and it isn't the ocean breeze..."

"Great," Jun muttered under his breath. She hadn't learned to consciously use her abilities in her cursed form yet, but she was still more sensitive than he was. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, concentrating and reaching outward. The rose ring on his finger began to glow crimson.

His eyes flew open again. "Crap!" he shouted as he jumped to his feet, loud enough to reach even photo-happy Mitsu. "It's Suigin Tou!" In nearly the same motion he darted to the cooler, pulled out a bottle of water, popped the top on it, stared hard at it for an instant while his ring blazed like a star, then tossed it over Shinku, the heated water shrinking her down from 'human' to 'living doll'.

"Suigin Tou?" repeated Nori, sitting up and fumbling her glasses into place, even as a whirl of rose petals spun around Shinku, slicing away the excess fabric of the bathing suit and reforming the rest into something that fit. "I know she hates it that Shinku abandoned the goal of Alice and used that magic water so she could be with you, but I thought you made peace with her."

"I guess Suigin Tou decided she couldn't accept it after all." This was Sousei Seki, finally looking up from her study of the oceanside vegetation. Her voice carried the faint but unfading note of disapproval that Jun and Shinku had been growing hard-pressed to ignore.

At the moment, though, ignoring it was as easy as breathing. "She promised us!" The protest and anger in Shinku's tone were far more obvious than any undertones of the Gardener. "After Jun showed Megu how to loop back the Rose Bond and gain the power to heal and strengthen herself, Suigin Tou promised there would be no more attacks!"

"And we believed her," Jun said disgustedly. "But she's out there right now, burning a lot of power, and coming closer... very... fast..."

Even as he spoke Suigin Tou came into view, blazing along four feet over the water with her shoulder-wings of ebon feathers streaming behind her. The other dolls might try different clothes from time to time, but Suigin Tou still wore the only outfit they'd ever seen her in, the Gothic gown of violet and white.

She did have one new accessory, though... the rope she held in both hands. It trailed behind her, tight and vibrating with the speed of her passage. At the other end of it was a beautiful black-haired girl on water skis, still pale from a lifetime spent in hospital but no longer sickly.

The eight beachgoers watched, jaws dangling, as Suigin Tou and Megu blazed out of sight as quickly as they'd entered it. Only for an instant did the First Doll of Rozen Maiden even acknowledge their existence, turning to face them with a tiny, guarded smile. And then the two were gone, hidden by an outlying rocky spit of coast, though Megu's squeals of joy lingered for several moments longer.

As those faded, silence reigned for nearly five minutes. It was finally broken by Suisei Seki. "Nice detective work, you two. But I don't think Kun-Kun needs to worry about his job anytime soon."

"Noooo!" This was Mitsu. "The only chance I may ever have to get Suigin Tou-chan on film, and I missed it!"

"Well, that was a relief. But what am I supposed to do about my bathing suit?" Shinku wondered. "I suppose there's enough material to put together a decent bikini."

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Author's notes

Since I made it reasonably clear ahead of time that Shinku was going to take a Nyannichuan curse, I needed something else for the high point of this final chapter. The image of Suigin Tou zipping along with a water-skiing Megu on a tow rope seemed like a good ending note.

As this is the end of the story, that means it's finally time to mention what the title of the fic means (for anyone who didn't already consult a German-to-English dictionary). The second season of the anime is _Traumend_, which means 'Dreaming', and my follow-up, _Atmung_, means 'Breathing'.


End file.
